Processes for making variegated soap bars by commingling colored and non-colored soap noodles and extruding the resulting soap mass are well-known in the art. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,722, Borcher et al., issued Nov. 23, 1976, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,754, Borcher et al., issued Mar. 7, 1978, both of which are incorporated herein by reference. Generally these variegations are in the form of linear or curved stripes, however they may be markings of any type. Although these processes generally relate to the manufacture of opaque variegated soap bars, they can be adapted to the manufacture of transparent variegated soap bars by utilizing mixtures of transparent and opaque soap noodles. In such a process, the actual formation of the soap bars, by a stamping operation, results in the formation of soap scraps which are substantially transparent, although they generally do contain some opaque portions (these opaque portions may, for example, correspond to the opaque stripes in the soap bar). The scraps must either be wasted or recycled, by some means, back into the soap manufacturing process.
While processes for making uniformly transparent soap bars are well-known (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,155,624, Kelly, issued Nov. 3, 1969 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,259, Lages, issued July 13, 1976, both of which are incorporated herein by reference), the scrap soap recycling techniques generally used in such processes (i.e., reintroduction of the soap scraps into the amalgamator, the roll mills or the preliminary plodder) are not useful in making transparent variegated soap bars, since such operations yield a substantial mixing of the transparent soap scraps with opaque soap noodles, resulting in a loss of the transparency of the soap scrap material. It is to be emphasized that this problem only exists in the manufacture of transparent variegated soap bars since that process utilizes both transparent and opaque soap noodles. One solution to the problem would be to recycle the scrap material back into the kettle at the start of the soap-making process; however, this approach is inefficient since it results in a loss of perfume and free fatty acid components already in the scrap material, as well as extensive and unnecessary reworking of the scrap material.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a process for the manufacture of transparent variegated soap bars which includes an efficient and effective method of recycling the scrap soap material formed by said process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an efficient method for recycling soap scrap material formed in a soap-making process which utilizes both transparent and opaque soaps.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a method for recycling soap scrap material which minimizes the loss of free fatty acid and perfume components used in said material.
These and other objects apparent to one skilled in the art are accomplished using the process described herein.